Mosquito menace troubles Vijayawada residents

The city and its outskirts are going through a mosquitoe menace which can cause severe diseases like Malaria, Typhoid, Dengue and Chikungunya.

VIJAYAWADA: Vijayawada residents are afraid of the dark as mosquito menace in the city has begun with the end of winter. The city and its outskirts are going through a mosquitoe menace which can cause severe diseases like Malaria, Typhoid, Dengue and Chikungunya.

Even people living in posh areas are spending lakhs for sanitation. The municipal administration is however trying to get the best rank in Swacch Survekshan.

Stagnant drain water filled with overgrown weed, unoccupied lands filled with garbage; garbage-clogged residential areas have became hotspots for mosquito breeding. Due to mosquito attacks, citizens are bedridden with diseases.

Children are also suffering from viral fevers and TD senior leader Gali Muddu Krishnamanaidu also died due to Dengue recently, which shows the condition of the city and its surroundings.

People are dependant on mosquito coils, electrical refills and mosquito repellents to ward off mosquitos. Residents of Penamalur, Poranki, Kamiah Topu, Suryaraopet, Mogalrajpuram, Patamata, Autonagar Bhavanipuram, Vidyadharapuram, Gollapudi, Chittinagar and other areas are facing the same problem. Despite the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) taking up fogging and other anti-larval operations, larvae breeding has not come down.

“The government on the other hand, seems to have lost its war against mosquitoes. Despite using coils the menace is uncontrollable and we must start using electric swatters (mosquito bats),” said Budala Surya Prakash Rao, an Advocate and a resident of Chittinagar. “The VMC staff are cleaning the drainage and leaving garbage beside the drainage itself, lettng it dry, which has become a home to mosquitoes in our area,” he added.

“Sometimes when the problem is severe, we spend sleepless nights. We have complained to the civic body using VMC’s mobile application several times.

Sometimes VMC workers carry out fogging, but the mosquitoes are reducing. Our family members are suffering with viral fevers one after another,” said Vanajakshi Narayana, a house maker and a resident of Kanuru.

“Only two malaria cases have been observed from January. Malaria and Dengue larvae develop only in freshwater when the rainy season starts,” said A. Nukaraju, Biologist, VMC. Though we are fogging and conducting anti-larvae operations like throwing oil balls in drainages, the larvae are developing in the canals which pass through the city,” he added. We are taking all the measures to neutralise the larvae density in the city,” he added.